


Infectious

by commander_hot_pants



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, F/M, Fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 22:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9924104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commander_hot_pants/pseuds/commander_hot_pants
Summary: Shepard is sure she's going to die this time. Kaidan is sure it's just a cold.





	

Shepard was the toughest marine Kaidan had ever served with.

He had once seen her use the butt end of an avenger rifle to bludgeon a geth to death. She’d once made a mad dash out of cover to tackle Liara under fire with three broken ribs to land on. At one point, Shepard went forty-two hours between breaking her cheekbone and getting it set.  Not to mention the very serious conditions that left her the only known survivor of Mindoir and those which left her labeled as the Butcher of Torfan.

So, when Shepard held a shaking hand out to him, tears welling in her glazed eyes and mumbled, “This is it. I’m dying.” He had no choice but to respond with sincerity.

“Shepard…” He took her hand in his, the skin cold and clammy, and brought it to his mouth. “Don’t say that.”

“I thought I’d go heroically,” She swallowed, he could tell it was a chore, “not like this.”

“Shepard…”

“It's too late, you need to go.” Her grip was weak but she managed a squeeze of his fingers. “Save yourself Kaidan.”

“Jane,” A small smile twitched at her lip at the name, reserved for him alone to use, “If you’d just- “

“You know it's too late, stop fooling yourself.”

“Just take the cold medication and you’ll feel better.” She blinked back tears and flopped back into her pile of pillows, the shirt she’d outright stolen from him two days ago was damp with sweat and Kaidan made a mental note to incinerate it if she gave it back.

“I think we both know it's bigger than that.” It really wasn’t. Four days ago, a strain of a thessian pox had been discovered aboard the Normandy and three crew members had contracted it before it could be contained. Shepard had been one of those three.

As this particular strain of thessian pox was less dangerous than the average cold and only had an average life of three to four days - which was less than they expected to spend between relays - the unlucky crewmembers were to let the disease run its course and avoid contact with non-immunized crewmembers.

Kaidan received immunizations against thessian pox twice a year as the illness was harmless to most but could cause serious complications with biotics. So he - as one of the few safe to visit her and also her boyfriend - was playing nurse slash babysitter to a very whiney, overly dramatic Commander Shepard.

“I brought you chicken soup.” Shepard looked at the tray he’d sat down on her bed side table.

“Are there star noodles?”

“Uh, no, it's rice.” Shepard cried out in pain and slumped a pillow over her face, mumbling angrily into its fluff. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I said I might as well be dead!” She yelled as she tossed the pillow off. “And I’ve _been_ dead before.”

“I also brought you some tea.” He added, “It's lemon, it will make your throat feel better.” As he pressed the mug into her hands her lower lip pushed further out.

“I don’t even like lemon.”

“Yes you do.” She glared but accepted him for his word and took a sip. After a moment of consideration, the glare returned.

“You’re a liar.” He smiled, he couldn’t help it. He’d seen this woman walk on a broken knee and smear medigel in her open wounds with shattered fingers, watching her collapse and pout like a child over a congested chest and stuffy nose was just… not at all what the Alliance had trained him for.

He moved around her, setting an arm over her shoulders and kissing the top of her head. Her hair was damp with sweat but as squeamishness to bodily fluid was usually trained out of Alliance personal by the end of basic, Kaidan ignored it and pulled her close anyway. Normally, Shepard protested cuddling but her tired body slumped into his bonelessly.

Shepard took a few more sips of the tea before letting him replace it with the mug of chicken rice soup he’d had made for her, following closely a recipe his mother used when he was young, as closely as he could on an intergalactic warship with a less than ideally supplied mes. It had taken a little help from Liara but he was confident in the end result. Shepard seemed to like it, even if it didn’t have star noodles.

After he took the empty mug from her and helped her arrange her three thick blankets in the way that pleased her, he popped on an episode of Space Cops and let her all but lay on his chest.

“I like this show.” She murmured out the side of her mouth despite her eyes having been closed through most of the last episode. "I like you."

"I like you too." She squirmed her feet out of the blankets and sighed. "Fever?" She nodded and Kaidan passed her a tab which she let absorb under her tongue. "Might make you sleepy."  Within a minute, she was out.


End file.
